fantasy

12/02/2011

Middle-grade fantasy: my bread and butter. Possibly my number one favorite category of all time. I cannot get enough of it. I never get tired of it. And boy, this was a great year for it. As usual, I'll mix in some (possibly) lesser-known favorites and make sure to get a couple of paperbacks in. And for the most part, I think these make great read-alouds - but remember with fantasy you can get some scary stuff. None of these books has anything worse than Harry Potter, though, so if your reader is okay with Harry, they'll be okay with these.

1. THE EMERALD ATLAS by John Stephens: Hands down the best new fantasy of the year. Possibly the best new fantasy since Harry Potter. If your kid hasn't heard of this series yet, it's only because this is book one and it's only been out eight months. Kate, Michael and Emma have been passed from one orphanage to another, and everyone believes their parents are dead. At their latest orphanage, they accidentally discover a magical atlas - when you place a photograph inside its pages, the atlas takes you back in time to the moment the picture was taken. They are whisked into a past when the local town was run by a witch who is looking for that very same atlas. Will they be able to keep it hidden, get back to their own time, save the world - and possibly learn the truth about who they are and what happened to their family? I haven't mentioned this book in awhile because I think people actually got tired of hearing me talk about it. LOVE.

2. THE CLOCKWORK THREE by Matthew Kirby: Hugo Cabret meets The Thief Lord. Three children - a violin-playing orphan busker; an apprentice clockmaker; and a hotel maid with a very ill father - find their paths crossing time and again as each searches for one thing that will change their life forever. This was has a complex, twisting plot, and too long of a description gives too much away. Kirby's latest, ICEFALL, is also awesome - though totally different - it's a Norse folklore-inspired fantasy-tinged coming of age story, and I loved it too.

3. THE BOOK OF THREE by Lloyd Alexander: I have loved this series for over three decades, and I never get tired of re-reading it. I wish they would re-jacket them, but oh, the insides. Taran is an orphan and Assistant Pig-Keeper for Dallben the wizard's oracular pig, Hen Wen. Taran longs for adventure and when Hen Wen escapes her enclosure and he runs after her, he runs right into some. First he meets Prince Gwydion and then the enchantress Achren, who captures them both and takes them to the castle of the Horned King. Taran manages to escape with the help of a princess and a bard, both of whom will become prominent characters in the four following books, and when Gwydion is believed dead, it will fall to Taran to defend Prydain from the Horned King. This series is based on Welsh mythology. For me, this is one of the greatest fantasy series of all time. Alexander built a complex world that builds with each subsequent book, and the characters show true growth throughout the course of the story. I actually think I need to re-read it; just talking about it makes me want to.

4. BREADCRUMBS by Anne Ursu: Quietly, stunningly beautiful--this book just swept me off my feet. It's based on my favorite Andersen fairy tale, The Snow Queen. Hazel and Jack, 11 year old best friends, are being pulled apart by many things - problems at home; parental suggestion; peer pressure. It's a troubled time, right on the edge of puberty, and Hazel's confused and hurt - but when Jack's stolen away to the woods by a mysterious witch, there's no question that Hazel will go after him. The journey she embarks on is fraught with danger and loneliness and lessons to learn and bits of other Andersen fairy tales, and is woven together expertly. Give this one as part of a pair with A TALE DARK AND GRIMM, which I discuss below.

5. FLOORS by Patrick Carman: Leo lives at the Whippet Hotel, where his dad is the maintenance man, and things are a bit crazy - there are hidden rooms, secret staircases, and ducks living on the roof. One day Leo receives a box from Mr. Whippet, the missing owner of the hotel. The box starts him off on a wild chase through the hotel, finding clue after clue (and more crazy rooms than he ever knew existed), in order to ultimately save the hotel from nefarious people who want to buy it. This one's perfect for absolutely any kid - I NEVER had a failed handsell on it - but especially for fans of CHARLIE AND THE CHOCOLATE FACTORY or Jody Feldman's THE GOLLYWHOPPER GAMES. Sequels are coming!

6. PETER NIMBLE AND HIS FANTASTIC EYES by Jonathan Auxier: Sometimes when I really love a book I get bogged down in the handsell, and my description makes the book sound...not good. This is one of those books, so I'm going to cut and paste the jacket description, which sums up the plot WAY better than I do. I was on the ABA New Voices Committee that honored this book earlier this year, and it SO deserved it. Jonathan really is a voice to watch. And the plot: This is the utterly beguiling tale of a ten-year-old blind orphan who has been schooled in a life of thievery.One fateful afternoon, he steals a box from a mysterious traveling haberdasher--a box that contains three pairs of magical eyes. When he tries the first pair, he is instantly transported to a hidden island where he is presented with a special quest: to travel to the dangerous Vanished Kingdom and rescue a people in need. Along with his loyal sidekick--a knight who has been turned into an unfortunate combination of horse and cat--and the magic eyes, he embarks on an unforgettable, swashbuckling adventure to discover his true destiny.

7. THE SIXTY-EIGHT ROOMS by Marianne Malone: I reviewed this one in ARC form, back in 2009. It's out in paperback now, and I love it just as much - especially as I finally got to see the Thorne Rooms at the Art Institute of Chicago last month!

8. SAVVY by Ingrid Law: I sold this book for years, but never actually read it until about four months ago. (Actually, I listened to it on audiobook; it was a superb audiobook.) Mibs Beaumont is about to turn thirteen, and when a Beaumont turns thirteen, they get their Savvy. One of her brothers channels electricity and the other causes hurricanes, so she's expecting something really powerful - which she'll need if she's going to save her father, who's been in a horrible accident many miles away. Mibs - along with her brother and the preacher's children - stows away on a bus in order to get to her father in time, and what happens to them along the way will change everyone involved forever.

9. A TALE DARK AND GRIMM by Adam Gidwitz: this book is a masterclass on story structure - a brilliant fairy tale retelling that begins as Hansel and Gretel and grows into so much more. The narrator talks to you throughout (I love when they break the fourth wall) and it does get quite creepy and gory in places, just like real fairy tales do. I cannot even tell you how much I am dying for Adam's next book to come out. Give this one as part of a pair, with BREADCRUMBS.

10. MIDDLEWORLD by J & P Voelkel: Great for fans of Percy Jackson! Max's parents are Mayan archaeologists, and when they disappear while on a dig, Max finds himself in Central America on a dangerous quest to find them. Along the way he will encounter Mayan Gods and more danger than he ever found in the video games that used to keep him company. Max is a total whiner at first, lazy and soft, but a Mayan girl soon kicks his butt into gear. LOVE this series.

11. EVERLOST by Neal Shusterman: I just met Neal at NCTE and told him, and I quote, "I sold the crap out of your books." Except I didn't say crap. He cracked up, but it was totally true. Neal is one of my favorites, ever. Most of his books are YA - and technically this is too - but I don't think it's scarier than Harry Potter, which is what I measure things against for parents. I'm going to cop out on this one, because the starred review from School Library Journal says it better than I ever could: "Nick and Allie are killed in an automobile accident and meet as they are heading down a tunnel toward the light. They land in Everlost, the space between the living and the end of the tunnel, and meet Lief, from whom they learn that Afterlights cannot walk where the living walk and that they cannot be seen or heard by the living. Allie is determined to go home, so she and Nick set out from the accident site in upstate New York and the safety of Lief's forest for New Jersey. Even though they have been warned about the McGill, a dreaded, evil monster, they slowly make their way, eventually arriving in New York City. There they meet Mary Hightower, who cares for Afterlights in the destroyed World Trade Towers, keeping them safe from the McGill and the Haunter. (In addition to children, buildings and objects can also cross into Everlost if they were much loved.) In their ensuing adventures, they are captured by the McGill and suffer a horrible fate before Nick discovers his true purpose in Everlost. Shusterman has created a world in which nothing is as it seems. As the teens struggle to make sense of this alternate afterlife, they also grow and develop as people. They learn to question those who have put themselves in power, and they begin to see what is truly important. Shusterman has reimagined what happens after death and questions power and the meaning of charity. While all this is going on, he has also managed to write a rip-roaring adventure complete with monsters, blimps, and high-diving horses." Book 1 of 3.

12. ALIENS ON VACATION by Clete Barrett Smith: Scrub is annoyed to be packed off to spend the summer with his grandmother - until he learns that her bed & breakfast is actually a vacation spot for aliens. While his grandmother disguises them and helps them blend in for an exotic Earth vacation, Scrub gets into one hairy situation after another. I don't often LOL while reading, but I did it many, many times while reading this. And everyone on the New Voices committee liked it just as much as I did! This was another handsell that pretty much never failed.

If I don't stop here I never will, but let me tell you - this list could be three times as long.

11/10/2011

First, a bit of business: Kidliterate now has a Facebook page, and I am giving away books every time we get a hundred new followers. When we got to 100, I gave away a complete set of Emily Jenkins' TOYS series in hardcover! So go here to like us on Facebook. Don't worry - we don't post often, so we won't be clogging up your feed!

So even though I still want more Creel (MORE!), I can't possibly stay mad at someone who writes these books I love so much. Because, my friends, she went and did it again - and not in a Britney type of way. This time, she's gone and created Princess Celie, and darned if I'm not head over heels again.

Celie lives in Castle Glower, where Tuesdays are amazing. Why, you ask? Because on Tuesdays, the castle gets bored and changes itself. It might rearrange some corridors, or add a new room or two, or stick an entire wing on one end, or pop on some new towers. That door you take to get where you go? Might not be there on Tuesday. It was certainly frustrating to some visitors, but "Celie truly loved Castle Glower. She never minded being late for lessons because the corridor outside her room had become twice as long, and she certainly didn't mind the new room in the south wing that had a bouncy floor. Even if you could only get to it by climbing through the fireplace of the Winter Dining Hall." And Celie felt like the Castle loved her, too. Whenever she urgently needed to be somewhere, she could usually get there quickly. When she was sick, the Castle filled her room with flowers. It left her snacks when she was hungry and led her to fun places when she needed something to do.

Not only does the Castle change itself when bored, it also changes itself to alter circumstances or to help a situation along. The current King, Celie's father, was chosen by the Castle. If the Castle furnished a visitor's room poorly, the guards knew to keep a close eye on them. It seemed like the Castle truly knew everyone and exactly what was going on, all the time.

So when Celie's parents and older brother disappear and she and her sister and younger brother are left alone with a Council that doesn't seem all that broken up about the vanished royals, it is to the Castle that the prince and princesses turn for help. But when the situation turns ever more dangerous and even the Castle seems unable to help, will Celie be able to save her family?

This is a GREAT read-aloud. It's also perfect for kids who love Gail Carson Levine or Jean Ferris or E.D. Baker. This is younger than Ms. George's other books, though fans of DRAGON SLIPPERS will find much to love here. I love feisty, whipsmart Celie and the motley band of allies she assembles under the watchful eyes of the Council scoundrels. I love how she learns and grows during the book but the learning and growing is all wrapped in rollicking adventure and secret passageways and spying and the most awesome Castle in kids' books. I love her relationship with her siblings, especially Rolf, the king's heir. I love how when you read this book, you can go from heart-pounding excitement to loud laughter on the same page.

AND it's the first book of three, so we've got two to go, and then you can all be mad with me at the end. At least until Jessica Day George pulls another awesome heroine out of her seemingly endless bag of tricks. **Correction - Ms. George tells me that she doesn't know how many books there will be about Castle Glower, and that it's not intended to be a trilogy. Sad face. Well, I love this one, and will be hopeful of more!**

10/07/2011

note from Melissa: I love Kymm's reviews of stuff from ages ago. I've actually never read Alanna, despite meaning to for...well...ever. Now I REALLY want to read it. And I think reviews of old stuff really help a new crowd discover it!

When I picked this one out of the library, I did so because it was the first of a series that looked interesting, not realizing that Tamora Pierce is She of Many Many Series and if I end up enjoying this one I'll just be chasing my tail desperately trying to quiet my OCD by reading them all, but then she'll just keep writing new ones and I'll never enver finish!

That said, I plucked this one out of the pile and started on it anyway.

Alanna and her twin, Thom, are being sent off to precicely the opposite futures that they long for, Thom to become a knight and Alanna to go to the convent to become a lady (where they also teach sorcery, which is what Thom wants, not to beome a lady), so they decide to switch places. Alanna chops off her hair and pretends to be Alan, and Thom just goes off to the convent because they train boys, too. How fortunate that he doesn't have to pretend to be a girl.

When Alanna, now pretending to be Alan, gets to the palace, she makes friends with the prince and an enemy of a bully, she works hard because she is stubborn, she uses the magic that she fears to save a life, she learns to fight, she binds her chest, she is liked and admired by all, though she neither knows nor understands why. Exciting things happen, and more exciting things will happen in three more books as Alanna grows up to become the warrior maiden that she wants to be.

This is an enjoyable book and I look forward to reading the other three, but it is clearly the work of a very young writer. I was surprised when I did the math and found that Tamora Pierce was almost 30 when this was published, but it says on Wikipedia that she wrote these books in college, which makes perfect sense, because this is the character that you write when you are in high school.

Alanna has red hair and purple eyes (how many purple-eyed heroines did I come up with as a child? As many as Anne Shirley did, I'm sure), she has an amazing amount of magical ability, more than anyone else, she beats up the bully even though she is smaller and a girl, she is admired by everyone, everyone who is nice likes her the best, but because she doesn't know it, she's not stuck up, and nobody is jealous that she gets special attention because they see that she is special and deserves it. This is the person that we all pretended to be in grade school, the special, magical heroine worknig against great odds. With purple eyes.

02/24/2011

Note from Melissa: Kymm recently moved from NYC back to her hometown of LA, and when she did, she regained her ability to use the library. (We can neither confirm or deny that she may have some outstanding fines in NYC.) She is now busily checking out the first book in every series she's ever been interested in and revisiting old favorites. She'll be sharing her journey with us!) So...here's Kymm!

As I was trolling through the library I found out some really exciting news! There are, since I last checked, two new Young Wizards books by Diane Duane! And you know what that means, don't you? It means that I get to re-read all of the previous books! SO YOU WANT TO BE A WIZARD was published in 1983 and I have probably been reading it since it was new, and every time new books are written I read it again, so I almost know it by heart by now. I always love how many kids books are about loner kids who love books, it's charming to me how many loner kids who love books grow up to write books.

This book is about Nita, a loner kid who loves books, who, while being chased by the bullying rich girls from her school who beat her up on a regular basis, hides in the library and finds the title book, which turns out to be every loner kid who loves books' dream come true, really exactly what it says that it is! She finds Kit, another kid in her neighbourhood who also is learning to be a wizard and they team up to ostensibly find Nita's stolen favourite space pen, but in reality, to save the world. What is wonderful about this series of books is that wizardry doesn't actually solve everyone's problems easily, it makes things harder sometimes, and not everyone always lives through whatever ordeal the book centers around. Nita and Kit, and, in later books, Nita's little sister Dairine, have very honest, distinctive kid voices, written by someone who didn't forget what it was like to be as helpless as a child sometimes is; you may be a wizard and saving the world, but you still have to be ontime for dinner or you get in trouble with your parents.

The Young Wizard books are not only about magic and wizardry and the wonder of talking to animals and plants and cars, but about what it is like to grow up and take responsibility to help, in whatever small or large way we can, to save the world. By the way, the edition that I read this time was the twentieth anniversary edition, which includes a really great afterword by Diane Duane, and a hard-to-find short story from 1986 about a miniature adventure of Nita and Kit. The story isn't a classic, but it's fun to read if you are a completist like me. On to DEEP WIZARDRY! And beyond!

02/10/2011

I am so in love with this book. I ordered it on the strength of E.D. Baker's other books, but because I hadn't read it by the time it came out, it sat (as hardcovers I haven't read tend to do). And sat. And sat. For months. Finally in late November I plucked it off the shelf on my way out the door one night and took it home to read. Which I did in two hours. Then I promptly kicked myself - hard, while wearing steel-toed boots - for waiting so long. Oh, the lost income. Oh, the girls who could have read it already. Oh, the time I spent reading things that weren't as good.

Our heroine: Annie, younger sister of Gwendolyn; Gwendolyn's the princess cursed at birth to prick her finger on a spindle and you know the rest. So when Annie's born, her parents are so paranoid that they ask a fairy to protect her. The fairy casts this charm: From this day on, no magic shall touch you or bring you to harm. You'll have to survive on your natural charm. Annie is now impervious to all magic, which is not exactly considered a blessing in a country where everything relies on spells and charms. Everyone uses magic to make themselves "beautiful and graceful and sweet," and most members of Annie's family had been given magical gifts at their births. However, being in Annie's presence makes those gifts fade, so Annie has spent much of her life being held at arm's length by her entire family.

Annie's gift comes in handy when a miniature spinning wheel is smuggled into the palace and Gwendolyn pricks her finger, causing herself and everyone else within the walls to fall asleep - everyone, that is, except for Annie. Because she is the only one untouched by the magic, it's up to her to save her family and her kingdom. With the help of Liam (a Royal Guard who'd gone on a mission to the town and thus missed the spell) and a series of haphazard princes, Annie will outsmart some well-known fairy tale characters, wake up her family and possibly even fall in love.

THE WIDE-AWAKE PRINCESS is FUNNY. What a great read-aloud this would make. I sold a bunch of copies as Christmas gifts and I am going to sell the absolute crap out of it in paperback; there won't be a girl who shops at our store who won't have this book. Annie is a fantastic character - I always need a great book with a self-rescuing princess. Baker weaves a bunch of bits of well-known fairy tales into the story and it's so much fun picking them out. This book is a total romp and I love it to pieces and I can't wait to read it to my daughter someday. Sometimes when I like a book I just keep the galley, but this one? I'm buying it in hardcover.

(Oh! And the cover! Thecoverthecoverthecover! I LOVE the cover. The galley had a photo cover and I am SO. OVER. photo covers and when the book came I was so happy to see they'd changed it! Yay!)

09/01/2010

When Maya's best friend Stephanie died from cancer, her world fell apart. When her father's job became uncertain, he and her mother took the opportunity to give the family a fresh start and moved from Iowa to Oregon. There are a lot of different things about their new town, including the people who live in the apartment building next door (who dress strangely and stick close to home) and, oh yeah, there's the fairy that flies into Maya's room one night. When Maya wakes up the next morning, she thinks it was a dream - until she finds gold sparkly dust on the sheets. And the strange just keeps on coming: she meets her next door neighbors, and they use words she's never heard of; a strange boy keeps asking her where the portal is; her neighbors are able to smell the fairy dust on her. Finally, at the end of her first day in her new school, Portal Boy shows up again and gets her to agree to take care of something he's stolen. Now she has a magical egg in her wrist, which is going to hatch into...something. Her next door neighbors are the only people with the power necessary to help her: they are the guardians of portals to other worlds, including the one where her egg came from. They've opened a door to another world for Maya, and it is one that will change her forever. This is my first Nina Kiriki Hoffman novel (and her first for kids), but it won't be my last. I LOVED this. I think the best thing about this (besides the fantastic writing) is that it's not really fantasy, and it's not really science fiction. It is an incredibly cool mix of the two, very unlike anything else I've read and yet comfortably set in our modern world with a main character anyone can relate to. Maya's grief over Stephanie gently powers a lot of her actions, which gives the whole book an undercurrent that really showcases Hoffman's writing. It's an incredibly realistic portrayal of adolescent emotion, which is unusual in a book in this genre. I also loved watching Maya deal with her troubles partially through art, taking everything down in her omnipresent sketchpad. So not only do we have fantasy, scifi, wonderful writing, and compelling characters, but we also have messages of the importance of art in our lives and of the power of grief. It's a lot to fit into one middle-grade book, but Hoffman makes it look effortless. Sequel, please.

08/23/2010

In a season where dystopia is the new utopia and boyfriends (or girlfriends) either have demonic (or angelic) tendencies, THE GRIMM LEGACY is a welcome oasis of clever plotting and wonderful reimagining of old tales. Elizabeth, our heroine, spends her days trying to please her stepmother and two stepsisters, and even must leave her beloved dance classes in order to help pay for her sisters’ college fees. When on the way to school in downtown New York, she encounters a homeless woman wearing only sandals in the brutal cold. Elizabeth gives the woman her gym sneakers, and this kind deed has unexpected repercussions: she is invited by her enigmatic history teacher to interview for a job at the New York Circulating Material Repository. Curious and in need of extra cash, Elizabeth goes to the interview, and is subsequently hired at the Repository, which she comes to learn is a library of sorts for magical objects. Some, as the title alludes, are from the Grimm fairy tales, but others have more sci-fi applications, including collections from Wells and Lovecraft. There are objects going missing from the Repository, however, and Elizabeth must choose which of her new co-workers are worthy of trust as they search out the thief. There is something wonderful about reading a book that takes you away to a place you’d really like to go, and The Grimm Collection does just that. I can’t tell you how much I want to go to the Repository now (you know, provided it actually existed). Everything about it is so whimsical (and a little dangerous), and Polly Shulman did such a wonderful job choosing the objects to feature. Elizabeth is a brilliant heroine, and I rooted for her from page one, but I also really liked the supporting cast: Marc, the hot African-American basketball star who’s keeping secrets; Aaron, the geeky-cool nerd who pretends to be cynical; and Anjali, the girl-who’s-so-pretty-you-want-to-hate-her-but-she’s-really-nice-so-you-can’t-and-also-may-have-a-secret-too. The amazing thing about this novel is that it’s a perfect fit for so many ages. It would make a charming read for a savvy eleven or twelve year old, but older teens will enjoy the romantic possibilities between the characters as well as the magical rules of the world; you can borrow a magical artifact if you get clearance from the Repository, but you have to leave something of yours behind, which could be your sense of humor, your singing voice, or even your firstborn child. This is a must-buy for any middle school librarian looking for something original and—dare I say it—perhaps even a little sweet. Note from Melissa: this is one of my favorite books of the season, and I am so glad Sarah reviewed it. It is absolutely delightful. Shulman's a favorite of mine, and it will not disappoint you. I too am dying for the Repository to actually exist, and you will be too. Thank goodness we can visit whenever we want by reopening this book.

07/15/2010

(review by Sarah) When it comes to Cornelia Funke, I have no critical faculties. I can't lie; I love what she does. I love her picture books, I love her middle-grade novels, and I love her young adult novels. I marvel at how she writes in German and then really smart, clever people come along and translate her words, and then she reads the translations, which just boggles my mind. I adore how she allows her novels to unfold, sometimes even somewhat slowly, which is the antithesis of so much of what I read in contemporary children's fiction. Cornelia will make you wait, but she will make the wait worthwhile. Our dear Melissa very bravely stormed the crowds at BEA and snagged me a gorgeous hardcover ARC of RECKLESS, which is Cornelia's first novel published by Little, Brown. Although I was dying to read it, I chose to wait until a week arrived where I had ample time to not just read it, but to savor it. Remember Charlie Bucket and the Wonka Bar he got for his birthday, and how he made it last for weeks? Well, I'm not as patient as Charlie, but I swear I made myself dole out the last hundred pages of RECKLESS over several days, which took great self-control on my part. Why did I love it so much? What is RECKLESS all about? Read on, but I may drop a spoiler or four along the way, so consider yourself warned. The setting: modern-day-ish Europe. Doesn't really matter where. We meet Jacob, a young boy exploring his father's study. Everything is covered with dust; his father is long gone. ('Gone' is the operative word here, as his father is missing, not dead.) Jacob examines a curious mirror in the study, and through the mirror, he discovers another world on the opposite side. Funke fans may feel echoes here of the INKHEART books, where the world beyond ours seems all the more real, but just as the Inkworld was a dangerous place, the Mirrorworld holds its own temptations as well as nightmares. We flash forward to years later; Jacob is now a very experienced treasure-hunter in the Mirrorworld (and has the scars to prove it), and his younger brother, Will, seeks to leave the real world to follow Jacob in the fairy-tale-esque land beyond the mirror. Their time together takes a disastrous turn, however, when Will is attacked by a Goyl, a humanoid race made of stone. The vicious blow starts a chain reaction in Will's body; he is slowly turning to stone. Jacob, who has always felt responsible for his younger brother, seeks to find a cure, but in the Mirrorworld, nothing comes easily, and everything has a price. Jacob is immediately likable; he, like his last name suggests, is reckless, and has a bit of an Indiana Jones/Han Solo thing going on. He's smart, charming, worldly-wise, and yet he's tormented by a childhood without a father, and runs away from conflict. Will, on the other hand, stayed in the real world with their mother until her death, and he blames Jacob for leaving them for months at a time with barely a word. Will also is in love with a young woman named Clara, who is swept along by the Reckless brothers into the Mirrorworld, and she displays a remarkable amount of courage on the journey. What's interesting is that Jacob and Will aren't really even teenagers anymore; they're actually young men, and I was really impressed with Cornelia's choice to make her characters a little older than one usually finds in a young adult novel. Their ages suited the dark, strange Mirrorworld, and gave me confidence as the novel went along that Jacob especially had the chops to handle the hurdles he faces. I will say I'm not quite sure what age RECKLESS is for. I believe it's YA at its heart, but that said, I know well-read twelve-year-olds who would read it and love it, and I think I could easily give it to twenty-or-thirty-something friends too. It's grim at times, and did feature a minor villain with knives for hands that scared the crap out of me. RECKLESS takes its fairy tale inspirations very seriously; there are indeed witches who eat children, there are spells that will turn you into a tree for hundreds of years, and the unicorns will gore you if you get too close. Beyond that, there's an entire political struggle (i.e. war) going on between the humans of the Mirrorworld and the Goyl, which culminates in a climactic battle scene for the throne, and even Jacob's connection to a powerful Fairy may not be enough to save his brother. Will's situation, that of slowly turning into a Goyl, is painful to watch, as he slowly loses his memories of those he loves, as his heart is gradually turning to stone (jade, in his case). I was entirely invested in Jacob's journey, and Funke's gift for writing supporting cast (particularly Fox, who really intrigued me with her motivations) really shone in RECKLESS. Here's my bottom line: nobody writes like Cornelia Funke, as far as I'm concerned. I love her voice because it doesn't sound like anyone else. She has a remarkable gift for description, and I love how she uses iconic imagery to give insight into her characters (the black moths for the Dark Fairy, the Bluejay for Meggie's father, etc). I love how she makes me fall head over heels with her stories every time, and even though I never know what she's going to do, I trust her implicitly. I have been assured by our Little, Brown rep that a sequel is indeed in the works, and for that I'm very grateful, because I'm not ready to let go of the Reckless brothers anytime soon. Note from Melissa: I was hoping Sarah would review this, because I consider her a Cornelia Funke expert in addition to being a super fangirl. I didn't love the INKHEART series, but I love her picture books and THE THIEF LORD and I really, really loved RECKLESS a lot. As an indie bookseller I am very concerned about the price point - it's $19.99, and I can't afford to discount it 33% like the online retailer who would like to put everyone out of business can. $19.99 is a lot to ask a parent to shell out for a novel their kid will likely read in one day (the kind of kid who will read this is the kind of kid who plows through books like a freight train, no matter their length or complexity). Kids' books seem to be increasingly creeping toward this price, and I think it's a big mistake. I also didn't understand Little, Brown's decision to make this ARC a limited edition bound hardcover. Every single shop was going to carry this book anyway, and it was already going to be a bestseller. It's Cornelia Funke. I wish if they were going to spend this kind of money they'd spend it on debut authors who get overlooked.

04/12/2010

One of my favorite spring books is the fantastic KNIGHTLEY ACADEMY by Violet Haberdasher. I read it in galley form, very early, and couldn't wait for it to come out so I could sell it. It's always so fantastic to read a fantasy that is more about strongly developed characters and intricate plot than it is about making up lots of crazy new magical words. KNIGHTLY ACADEMY has some fascinating things to say about class relations, too, and features an awesomely feisty girl right alongside the varied male characters. It is an excellent read.
So you can imagine my delight when I opened the mailbox one day and discovered that a visitor had come to see me, all the way from the actual Academy!
It was time for the spring holidays at Knightley, and the WeeKnight decided to make a trip all the way here to St. Louis to see me. Apparently he'd gotten word of my fondness for the Academy, and decided to come and thank me in person. I decided the least I could do was show him a good time.

We started our time together with breakfast at the best bakery in St. Louis, Sweet Art. WeeKnight was a little perplexed about how to eat something that was just about his height. (He did much better with the cupcakes we bought for later.)

He was also a little startled to be handled by us, but soon got used to being carted around. (The armor gets very heavy, apparently.)

(He rejected Molly's offer to loan him a purse, however.)

Before we went on with our exploring, the WeeKnight wanted to see if anything was going on at the Academy, so we pulled up the webpage on the iPhone for him. Fortunately all seemed to be calm, so we went on with our day. First stop: the St. Louis Zoo.

He decided to observe the elephants from a distance.

He did agree to get on the carousel with Molly, however.

He claimed to find it pretty tame, but I think he might have been covering his alarm over the size of the cat on which he was perched. Not too long after that, our day was done. We started his second day off with breakfast, of course.

We tried to warn him away from the caffeine, but just after this picture was taken, he overturned the cup and had the waitress fill it. That accounts for the sheer volume of things we did the rest of the day. First stop: the St. Louis Science Center.

The WeeKnight was glad to orient himself on a map after being carried around by me for almost two days.

He tried the musical hopscotch board, but couldn't jump high enough to make the music play.

He made a new friend, though!

He tried to make some others, but they kept ignoring him.

He finished our time at the Science Center by playing in the Duplo blocks instead.

Our time with the WeeKnight was almost over, but we had one more stop to make: he wanted to see the book about his school up close, so we swung by - where else? - Pudd'nHead Books.

First he checked out the current bestsellers:

Then he got a little confused by a card:

Finally, though, he found what he'd been searching for:

He was ecstatic, especially after watching me handsell a copy to a customer.

Soon enough it was time for us to bid one another farewell. He had two other stops to make before heading back to the Academy, and he wanted to get on the road. Our visit with the WeeKnight was one we will not soon forget, and hope that you've enjoyed this chronicle. He and I both recommend purchasing and reading KNIGHTLEY ACADEMY as soon as humanly possible, preferably from your local independent bookstore.

(Final note from Melissa: I don't usually do this sort of thing. I don't have a lot of time for things like blog tours and interviews; bookselling takes up most of the time that used to be used on blogging. However, for books I really love, I'm going to try to make an exception. KNIGHTLEY ACADEMY is the first of those. I highly recommend it.)

04/03/2010

There's this thing we booksellers do all the time: we sell books we've never read. We're pretty sure they're really good, and we're pretty sure we'd enjoy them if we ever got to them, but for one or twelve reasons or another we haven't. However, they seem to fit a niche, so sell them we do. FABLEHAVEN was in that category for me until yesterday. And now it is not! Brandon Mull is one of the authors Pudd'nHead has coming this spring, and I would like to review something by each of them on this blog between now and their appearance. Brandon's not the first author we're having, but I've actually chosen this book to kick off my new fantasy/otherworldly book club at the store, so I read it first and am thusly reviewing it first! Now that I've read it, of course, I honestly can't believe I missed out on it for four years. (And I want to read the sequels, which is a problem, because I barely have time for the first book in a series.) I'm really looking forward to discussing this with the kids (and having Brandon at the shop). Kendra and Seth are being packed off to grandparents they barely know while their parents go on a cruise. They've never been to their grandparents' house; no one in the family really has. They're told their grandmother is away; their grandfather is a little odd and has a lot of rules they have to follow. When Seth breaks the rules (something he's going to do a lot), they begin to learn the truth about their grandparents: they are caretakers of Fablehaven, a secret sanctuary for mythical creatures. Their grandfather brings them into the fold, but Seth's continued overactive curiosity soon puts not just Fablehaven in danger, but also their family...and, possibly, the world. I love the characters here. Kendra and Seth have an awesome, believable relationship, with exactly the right amount of bickering and affection. Lena, their grandfather's housekeeper, may be my favorite character - except she has to vie with their grandfather. The setting unfolds slowly, with a great balance of secrecy and surprises. There are awesome moments of humor (wait until the fairy broker shows up). There ARE a lot of secrets here, so I don't want to say much if you too have missed out on this great series. But this would be a great read-aloud for families - good adventure, good characters, a little mystery, a little creepiness, some humor, and some wonderful plotting. It's good for kids reading up and for anyone who loves the SEPTIMUS HEAP books, GREGOR THE OVERLANDER, CHILDREN OF THE LAMP etc. Now that I've read it, I'm even more eager to sell it. (Incidentally, how I would handsell it was basically like this: "FABLEHAVEN is about what happens when siblings learn that their grandparents run a secret sanctuary for mythical creatures." A lot of handsells are exactly that short; that one worked a lot. )